It hasn’t happened in the National Hockey League and it might never happen in an global competition. Team Russia’s Evgeny Kuznetsov (92) celebrates his goal against Team Canada with teammates Andrei Markov (79) and Evgeny Dadonov (63) during the second period of a World Cup of Hockey semifinal game, Saturday.
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And now, on this September Saturday night six years later, here was Team Canada. overwhelming favourites in the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, suddenly trailing 2-1 when Evgeni Kuznetsov scored for Russian Federation with just 3:36 remaining in the second period of this tournament semi-final. Corey Perry bulled his way to a goal to double Canada’s lead about three minutes later. His five hits didn’t leave much of a mark on the Canadians.
But it continues to be the trio of Crosby, Marchand and Patrice Bergeron that opposing teams can’t answer.
“I tried to do my best, obviously”, Ovechkin said afterward. “It doesn’t matter what’s the score right now, so you just have to be focused”.
Either way, this has been a very interesting tournament and if this is the last time we get to see the two all-star squads play, I’ll miss them. “We knew if we stuck with it and did our things that we’d be all right”.
“He said he was excited”. “The tournament is done for us”. I gave everything I had.
This is all you need to know about Crosby: Team Canada has now won 23 consecutive games in which the Pittsburgh Penguins captain has been in the lineup.
Canada will find out who they are facing in the Finals today based on the matchup between Team Sweden and Team Europe at 1pm. Does Ovechkin have any advice for Canada’s opponent?
“I had a little bit more time than you typically get”, Crosby said. “We play against those players in the National Hockey League”.
Crosby skated hard into a corner, forcing Alexey Marchenko to give up the puck earlier than he wanted. “That just shows how special of a player he is”. Just 76 seconds into the third period, he set up Marchand yet again, this time putting Canada up 3-2.
At the start of the third Bobrovsky stretched like an acrobat to take a goal away from Marchand, and then Marchand beat Bobrovsky clean on a ideal wrist shot from the top of the circle.
Jonathan Toews picked Evgeni Malkin and then found a trailing Logan Couture, his shot stopped by Bobrovsky. An alert Carey Price covered up … He fired a shot past Price’s blocker to even the score at 1-1.
Canada dominated the first period and could have easily been ahead by more if not for the superb play of Bobrovsky, who stoned a number of wide open Canadian shooters.
Nikita Kucherov tied it 1-1 at 8:47 of the second by scoring on Russia’s first shot of the period.
“That tying goal was huge for us”, defenceman Shea Weber added. Perry played the puck between his legs before lifting it high over Bobrovsky …
John Tavares, who scored the fifth goal, was probably the best forward on the ice. It was a nice reminder of the soft hands Tavares keeps hidden away with the New York Islanders …
Russian Federation was not in a position to come back in a game in which it gave up more than twice as many shots as it put on the Price-protected net until pulling their goalie late to add an extra skater in a nothing-to-lose attempt to get back in the game.
I’m totally in the bag for Jaroslav Halak and Team Europe, but I’m nearly afraid to see them get to the final because of what these wild Canadian dogs are gonna do to them. Lasting memory of Auston Matthews at the World Cup: Deking past Sweden defenceman Victor Hedman, while on his knees, and scoring seconds later. A few exhibition games?
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Let’s look, for example, at a team with an enormous identity: Team USA. There’s no chance they can keep up if we’re doing what we’re doing. While Team North America has been an absolute blast to watch, I can’t help but think I’d be annoyed as a Slovenian who wants to see Anze Kopitar play with his countrymen and not a hodge podge of others who live on the continent.
